The High Costs Of Colorado's High Water, By The Numbers

A man walks across the washed-out Wagonwheel Gap Road in Boulder, Colo., on Monday.

Mark Leffingwell Reuters/Landov

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Originally published on September 17, 2013 2:04 pm

The flooding that has roared through communities and canyons across Colorado's Front Range in recent days is now being blamed for:

-- as many as eight deaths

-- damaging or destroying 19,000 homes

-- causing up to $500 million worth of damage to roads and highways.

On Morning Edition, Grace Hood from NPR member station KUNC reported that "towns are just starting to dry out from days of heavy rain and flooding" and that "helicopter recovery [efforts] cranked into full gear Monday afternoon."

Hundreds of people remain unaccounted for. Most are thought to be OK but remain stranded because of impassable roads.

Also on Morning Edition, Mark Benjamin of Bellview, Colo., spoke about rigging a zip line across a creek to help get supplies to neighbors. He talked about how the road to his home had been severely damaged and being "surprised" he was talking on the phone with NPR.

He said he could see the fiber-optic phone line running to his property "hanging out there in space" where the road it was under had been washed away, Benjamin said.

-- The Denver Post writes that "according to early state emergency management office estimates, 17,994 homes have been damaged and 1,502 were destroyed along a 200-mile stretch of the Front Range, but the numbers could change as the waters recede and emergency workers reach more isolated areas."